I second Jon’s thoughts about Hywel’s contribution to our small
group reading a gauge theory book.
I came to appreciate Hywel’s point of view. In mathematics, we prove
theorems starting with axioms or hypotheses. In spite the surpassing
usefulness of mathematics in physics, it really boils down to trying to
match a mathematical model to reality, and this always is an inductive
process, not deductive. It’s not surprising that an experimental
physicist will be more critical of some models, no matter how beautiful
they may be mathematically.
We will miss him and his thundering “Wrong!”
--Barry
On 22 Jun 2018, at 1:56, Jon Zingale wrote:
Thank you for passing this sad news on to friam.
I will miss Hywel very much and often enjoyed
his contributions to our gauge field theory book
group over the last year. His sense of humor often
brought a chuckle and smile to my face. Hywel's
unique perspective on matters of physics and its
tenuous relation to the platonic world of numbers
provided much food for my thought. After all,
'Mathematics is ok, but it's better to know what
you are doing' :)
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
